北帝誕
According to legend and folk lore the North Emperor or Beid (北帝) is a powerful deity who rules the north. The ancient Chinese believed the world is made up of five elements, metal (金), water (水), wood (木), fire (火), and earth (土). They also assigned an element to each direction, north is water, south is fire, east is wood, west is metal, with earth in the centre. Furthermore, each element has a colour, metal is white, water is black, wood is green, fire is red, and earth is yellow. Each direction then takes on the same colour as the element that it is associated with.
From the above we know the North Emperor is related to water and black colour. No, it isn’t the ruler of the sea. That duty is assigned to various dragon lords with regional territorial control over seas, lakes, and rivers.
Inside the Forbidden City, a walled compound composed primarily of wooden structures, was a shrine dedicated to the North Emperor (Beidi) hoping that as god of water he would protect it against fire.
The third days of the third month on the lunar calender is designated as the North Emperor’s (Beidi) birthday. Part of the celebration is that on the 28th day of the second month the North God descends from his place inside and actually leaves the temple to make rounds among the people. The purpose of the visitation is to bring luck and good fortune. He returns to his rightful place inside the temple on the day before his birthday.
The video is a recording of this event that took place in Fusek, Taishan, Guangdong. The entire video is long, consists of seven parts. Below are Parts 1 – 3.
